Defiance
by Chrys-DASL
Summary: Susie Carmichael is being groomed by her mother to become a top doctor like her, but Susie is beginning to resist. When she sees a flyer for Banshee, she knows this is her chance to prove to herself that she can be somebody else. But can she keep it hidden from her mother? And how will things go when she realized Angelica is one of the groupies? One-shot. Sequel to In The Band.


DEFIANCE

A/N: This piece is a sequel to "In The Band." Please read that before reading this one, thanks:)

Susie eyed the flyer carefully. It was handwritten on computer paper, probably stolen from one of the labs, with thick black Sharpie for the lettering. It wasn't exactly thought out, and Susie wondered if they'd even be up the next morning. As soon as the administrators saw them, they'd pull it down. So she'd do them a favor and pull this one down first.

A passing student wouldn't see her as interested in the unimaginative flyer. They would see her as the goody two shoes suck up her mother taught her to be, the grade grubber who fought for mere points, publicly, when she wasn't raising her hand during class to ask about extra credit possibilities. That version of Susie, aka "the future Dr. Carmichael II," was completely her mother's creation. And that version of her would take down the fast-created flyer and toss it in the closest trash can.

No one, not even Susie herself, knew the real her, but she was trying, and this flyer was a way to show her classmates who she really wanted to be. The discovery was academic in origin. She'd created a song to remember Civil War battle dates, but then she'd kept it up. She even added her flute and wrote some piano melodies to add to some, and she could tell she was good at it. So she wrote songs that she sung privately in her room, and she could tell she was good in that aspect too.

Banshee just wanted a lead singer. Susie had never even heard of them, but the sloppy writing said they were getting ready for their first Battle of Bands, which would happen in just less than a month, if Susie's calculations were correct. She hated to admit it, but they probably were, and if she was also right about the administration, she knew she'd likely be the only applicant, not that her classmates didn't want to be in a rock band. They would never get the chance to know there even was a band looking for a lead singer, and Susie liked these odds. They gave her a better chance, and Susie was going to use it.

Susie was nervous. She wanted to wait a day before contacting them, namely to give herself time to write a new song for the audition, but she was also observing. She was right about the flyers being removed by morning. She arrived very early to school for a meeting with her tutor, the one her mother paid under the table to help her do better in just about everything. She finished in time to cruise the cafeteria, and the only people talking about the band were the members themselves. Susie knew them, but only because she was on the welcome committee in middle school when they arrived. She doubted they even remembered her, but that wasn't what caught her attention.

It was public knowledge across the county that Angelica couldn't sing and wasn't interested at all in music. Yet here she was sitting with the group. Johnny was on her right and Claire was on her left, sitting across from her brother, Andrew, and Clark was beside him. Between them all were fast food wrappers from a local hotspot. Angelica sipped an iced coffee, as did Claire. The boys were probably drinking soda from their cups.

Susie thought about going to them, but she needed more time, namely to decide if this was what she even wanted. Susie and Angelica had been rivals for as long as she could remember, and they likely always would be. Susie accepted this years ago and made a strong conscious effort to avoid anything Angelica dabbled with. Now she was throwing herself into a circle that likely revolved around her, and Susie wasn't sure about that.

As the day went on, Susie realized this was a development, that Angelica hadn't been with the group before. She had a photographic memory through rigorous training from her mother, and this was new, like "next day" new. Susie didn't know what this meant, but it helped ease her mind. If Angelica was new to the group, she was less likely to have enough clout to manipulate them, namely anyone she wasn't dating. Angelica was likely with one of them, but Susie had no idea who. It didn't matter. She had an audition to nail.

It was nearing seven o'clock when Susie was finally done with what her mother needed her to do for the day, all of it academic. The studious woman tracked Susie's homework assignments online and sent her reminders as soon as school let out. She could respond after her math club meeting, then she had to send her mother a text after each completed assignment. After a thirty minute break for dinner, Susie completed the last assignment, and her mother sent her an all-clear text. She was free.

Susie pulled the flyer out of her bag and put the number in her phone. Then she texted the number. It belonged to Clark, the band's one guitarist, and he was eager to hear what she had to offer. He texted her an address, but Susie heard her mother's car enter the garage.

"No can do," she wrote back, eying her laptop across the room. She smiled, readying her thumbs, "Do you have internet?"

Once they connected on Skype, Susie knew what she had to do, but there was a lag. Claire was getting pizza and didn't want to be interrupted when they arrived, so they unanimously decided to wait until the pizza arrived. For two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, they stared at each other. Susie could tell they were studying her, but she could also tell that no one recognized her. Despite her reputation for being a goody two shoes, she never crossed paths with these teens, so they ignored her existence. And since Angelica wasn't prowling around in the background, there was no one to call her out.

"Okay, go," Claire smiled, slapping down some Pizza Hut boxes on a table behind them before taking her spot next to Andrew.

Susie cleared her throat and eyed her notes. She barely needed them because her memory was so well trained, but it was comforting to have them near her as she sang through her song. She wished she knew an instrument, or at least could play one without her mother hearing downstairs, but she could tell when she finished and saw their delighted faces that it didn't matter that she was singing an original song in a quiet girly bedroom five blocks away.

"Well, I think we need to try you out with the group. How's tomorrow night at what, seven?" Clark asked. The group nodded so Clark repeated the question, "How's tomorrow night at seven?"

"I'll be there. Same address?" she asked, holding up her phone to the camera. The group did a thumb's up, and the call ended.

Susie lay back on the bed with a smile. She had gotten into a band, and not only that, but she was their lead singer. Nothing could get her down...not until she remembered the facts.

Fact 1: Angelica was buddy-buddy with the members.

Fact 2: Her mother would probably kill her if she found out.

Susie could do nothing about the Angelica situation, but she could fight to keep her mother from finding out, and that's exactly what she intended to do.

Susie showed up late for the appointment, but she texted them first. She had to finish up her calculus homework before she got the all-clear, then she had to get permission to go out. Susie used a group project due at the end of the following month as an excuse to go out, and now she was here, in a grimy garage with a bunch of teenagers to practice with their band.

"What up?" Andrew called from the drums, playing a riff that drowned out her answer. Clark patted Susie's shoulder before grabbing his guitar. Johnny picked up his bass and passed Susie some papers.

"We sent these to you already. Did you have time to look them over?" Clark asked, watching Susie's eyes skim quickly over the lines.

"I did. I couldn't practice or anything, but I think I've got it. I'm ready when you are," she nodded, moving to mic.

Up the street, a man with a rake stopped and glared at the group as Andrew banged out time. After a moment, he made the count, "A 1, a 2, 4!"

And the song began. Susie had the music, so she knew when to come in, and she knew from the notes how she should change her voice. The melodies created were impressive, and Susie could feel people watching her. She didn't know until the song was over and her eyes lifted to the front lawn. Claire was jamming to the music, thrashing around the driveway. Angelica was sitting in the grass, her eyes glaring at Susie.

"So, what'd you guys think?" Susie asked, ignoring Angelica and turning to the guys.

Johnny was blushing, "I think you were amazing, a perfect fit for the band. What about you guys? Is she in?"

"Sister intervention!" Claire screamed, running into the garage and giving Susie a rough tackle-hug, the kind that took years of practice with a brother close in age, "If you don't pick her, I'm disowning all of you! PICK HER!"

"Okay, okay," Andrew laughed, "She's in. Right Clark?"

"Right," Clark nodded.

Johnny nodded, "You're in. What about practices though? I feel like you're pretty busy or something. Strict parents?"

"Both. I do a lot at school, a lot of projects and extracurricular activities, and my mom oversees everything. I can work it out, but we can't tell her," Susie said, eying Angelica, who was now leaning on the wall at the entrance of the garage. "Especially you, Angelica. Can I trust you?"

"Oh, of course you can, Carmichael, but don't cross my path," Angelica glared, grabbing her ringing phone from her pocket. She groaned, "Gotta go guys. Bye," she said, moving up the curb. A moment later Cynthia drove up with the windows down. She was screaming at poor Jonathon as Angelica sank in the back seat, a visible scowl on her face.

Claire laughed, "Okay, like, what's up with that?"

"We have history," Susie replied, taking a seat on two milk crates. She put most of her weight on her legs, but the crates held her weight without creaking too much. Susie sighed, "Who am I kidding? We've always been rivals. I try to stay away from her, but...I need this. You can only do so much math homework and anatomy workshops before you get sick of education."

Andrew grinned, "Rebel overachiever. If we didn't already have a name, I think I'd go with that one."

Clark nodded, "I thought I recognized you. She's from the welcome committee, guys, and the math club. They made state last year."

"Oh yeah!" Johnny nodded, "I remember now! You guys were a big deal for a while. We were confused. We didn't know you could be a high school celebrity for being smart. We thought you'd be bully targets or something."

"Well we used to be, in the old days. No one cares anymore," Susie shrugged, shifting on the crates, "But my mom thinks this is really important, the smart thing. This?" Susie said, gesturing at the garage as a whole (the people, the instruments, the large oil stain from years of drips, etc.), "None of this is on her agenda. If she finds out, I'm dead, but I don't care anymore. I need to find myself, and you can't just check a book out of the library and figure it out."

Claire cracked up, "Unless you're a bookworm. Now let's eat!" Claire called, leading the way into the house. Susie followed them even though she wasn't very hungry, and she was surprised to realize there weren't any adults home. The teens ran the roost, digging packs of frozen pizza rolls out of the freezer and nuking them uncovered in the dirty microwave.

At first Susie was disgusted, but after trying a finished bite, she realized this was what adolescence tasted like, and this was what being a teenager felt like. She didn't know how things would go, but this was what she wanted, a place in the band, and she was glad to be here.

~End

Theme 38: Melody

A/N: Theme from my Infinite Theme List Challenge, which you can find on my profile. Let me know if you want to participate.

So this is the sequel to "In The Band," as I mentioned up top, but this won't be the last sequel. I have one more piece after this and I'll post it next week. Thanks to Celrock for giving me the idea. I actually already had an idea where Susie gets into music, but I never thought to weave these two together.

If anyone else has ideas, just PM me and I'll see what I can do with them. And thanks for reading this:)


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